Advanced Neoquest II Part 1: Skills Points Revealed

MERIDELL - You are reading the first of a three-part series on Neoquest II (NQ2). This article
will focus on the importance of skill points, a crucial part to your success in
NQ2. Although you may have heard that any combination of skill points can allow
you to win, there is no doubt at all that a better combination will allow you
to have an easier ride, and to finish the game in a shorter time (important when
you are gunning for that Race trophy!)

In the second part of the series, you will read about tips on getting the NQ2
Race Trophy. If you have been planning on getting that very cool trophy, I hope
you will be looking forward to it!

The suggested guide will include the skills needed for the final installment
of the guide, on nailing the four faeries, the Hubrid Nox and the ultimate villain
in the game, King Terask II. I would not say that this combination is the “perfect”
one, but it worked well for me, and it should for you.

Skill points reach their maximum potential around at skill levels 13 to 15.
Even if you have a certain skill maxed out, the ability to perform it improves
as you move further in the game. For starters, you can expect Rohane to hit
the enemies a whopping 140 hp in Chapter 5.

Rohane

Damage Increase

This skill should ideally be build up gradually at the very start of the game.
An absolute must.

Critical Attacks

Highly recommended. The skill enables Rohane to have a chance to exceed his
normal range of attack, and could be particularly useful if your party members
are severely injured – and all you need is a particularly deadly blow to finish
off your enemy. Max this out.

Combat Focus

If you had dreaded fighting characters like the Bionic Cybunny in Chapter 5,
you would see how Combat Focus could be useful. This skill allows Rohane to
take a significant percentage less damage when attacked, than if Rohane does
not have the skill. Magic attacks, however, will not be blocked in this sense.
Ideally you should let Rohane invest as many skill points as possible into attack.
Leave the defense to Mipsy, and Velm can heal Rohane as and when he can.

Oh, and yes, defeating the Bionic Cybunny gives you a spiffy avatar, but it’s
still an irritating fight all the same.

Stunning Strikes

Allows your enemy to stay “stunned” for a good 3 to 5 seconds, leaving you
some time deal an extra blow, or even heal yourself. A recommended skill, but
do this only after you have damage increase and critical attacks maxed out.

Battle Taunt

Many players overlook this skill and prefer to spend skill points in other
areas. Nevertheless, it is useful to a big extent and should be noted that this
skill is a defensive skill for Mipsy and Velm especially, due to her low hp.
I had invested some 8 points into Battle Taunt before the buildup to King Terask
II during Insane, to protect the weaker party members, since Rohane has the
highest amount of hp.

Innate Magic Resistance

Your enemies generally use magic attacks only late into the game, but you will
have Velm with you to heal you then. I would place my skill points somewhere
else. Not recommended.

Innate Melee Haste

For all the party members, this skill or Innate Casting Haste, should be maxed
out. Extremely useful skill, allows you to finish off battles quickly before
sustaining too much damage yourself.

At its fullest potential it can hit your enemies for 100 hp a pop, which can
be an immense motivation (nice to see them being hit for so much damage!) and
a great time saver. This is a done by magic, so be wary when using this for
enemies with innate magic resistance. Either max it out by the start, or you
are better off with Group Direct Damage.

Group Direct Damage

Is able to hit all of your enemies at 64 hp apiece when maxed out which amounts
to a good 256 hp if you have four enemies! Highly recommended. I don’t know
if it’s meant to be, but I find Astral Maelstrom effective than Obliterate when
it comes to the probability of it being missed. Max this skill out as soon as
you can.

Group Haste

Extremely handy to have, especially towards the later part of the game. Your
party members will be significantly faster and occasionally do double-attacks
in battle. Having this skill also saves you the gold from buying haste potions.

Slowing

Where slowing is concerned, it would be better to throw slow potions that you
can buy easily than to laboriously spend skill points on this ability. Not recommended,
and more so if you are racing, which obviously, extends the duration of your
fights.

Damage Shields

Another defensive spell by Mipsy for all the party members. Something like
a reflector, the attacker will sustain some damage himself whenever he hits
any of the members with the shield on. Such a skill would be more useful in
the later part of the game, but, as enemies tend to use Magic attacks more often
then, Damage Shields would become useless. Not recommended.

Innate Melee Defense

As Mipsy is the weakest member in your party, this skill would increase her
defense and thus decrease her chance of dying in battle. Because it can be frustrating
when Mipsy gets defeated in the midst of a battle and does not get the experience
she needs, this skill can come in handy. However, this skill does not benefit
your other party members much so I would use it sparingly, if at all, unless
in Insane, where you absolutely cannot afford to lose anyone at all.

Innate Casting Haste

Another Innate spell, this is essential for your party's main offensive spell
caster. Without this, an Astral Maelstrom spell could set you back about 12s
to after casting, which would effectively give your enemy additional two to
four additional turns! A must have!

You've just recruited Talinia into your party, she looks cool and carries a
bow. You enter a battle, only to discover that she does disgustingly low amounts
of damage! As Talinia is not a spell caster, you have to put considerable amounts
of skill points into this skill, or she would not be of much help in battles.

Multiple Targets

This skill increases the amount of enemies you can hit with one use of the
skill, and also the damage inflicted upon them. When you have maxed out, or
put good amounts of skill points into this skill, with Bow Damage, Talinia could
turn out to be as good as or better than Rohane! At higher levels, this skill
combined with Increased Bow damage can be more deadly than Mipsy’s Astral Maelstrom.
This is one skill I would recommend, after Bow damage.

Ranged Attacks

A usually overlooked skill Talinia can have, which I do not find much reason
to disagree. Effectively, this causes enemies that attack Talinia to have longer
delay, this speeding up your party, IF the enemy strikes Talinia, that is. Otherwise,
it is just a sitting ability.

Shockwave

With this skill, whenever Talinia hits an enemy, there's a chance that all
of them will be slowed a couple of seconds, giving you an additional turn occasionally.
Not such a bad skill to possess, but Talinia has better skills to spend points
on, particularly in the earlier points of the game. =)

Slowing Strike

Not recommended. It would be smarter strategically to use Slowing potions rather
than relying on Talinia’s Slowing Strike, which does not amount to a lot at
all, after spending considerable skill points on it. Place your points elsewhere.

Innate Magic Resistance

Towards later parts of the game Talinia would have a considerable amount of
hp, and can take a magic hit or two without posing too much of a threat. I'll
pass on this skill.

Not recommended despite its very attractive ability to heal 150hp a round when
maxed out. I always thought that this is a skill to be paired with Battle Taunt
(Rohane), but Battle Taunt can never be 100% effective. Better to use Group
Healing than this.

Group Healing

You must almost always use max out this crucial skill. Its potential to heal
360hp (90hp per party member) at one go is invaluable and beats any amount of
healing potions. To have everyone up to full health before an important battle,
get yourselves into a mini fight, and let Velm heal all the party members.

Mesmerization

Mesmerization helps to “freeze” one or more of your enemies while you concentrate
on the other enemies. This is helpful in cases when you would rather take your
enemies out one by one rather than hitting them all together. Otherwise, the
skills of Astral Maelstrom (Mipsy) and Spray of Arrows (Talinia) will negate
it, because a successful hit will cause a character to recover from Mesmerization.

Group Shielding

In my opinion, this is one skill which is underrated. When you have this skill
activated, enemies can do approximately 20% less melee damage. If an enemy casts
Astral Maelstrom while this skill is activated, from experience, up to 90% of
the skill can miss! On average, this is a good skill to have, especially when
your party is undertrained, or when you are fighting a major boss.

Celestial Hammer

Generally not recommended. After exhausting 15 skill points on the skill, you
can only hit the enemy for 45hp. Also, the skill becomes useless when you reach
Chapter 5, where your enemies have some form of innate magic resistance or another,
so your Celestial Hammers will mostly be missed. Velm would better off with
healing the members anyway, and if he has nothing to do during fights, you can
always use damage potions.

Innate Melee Defense

Because of Velm’s importance as the primary healer, his safety is of prime
concern. Max it out, especially if you are on Insane.

Innate Casting Haste

As of the rest of the party members mentioned above, speed is one of the major
investments. Be fast and heal your party members quickly to prevent them being
killed. A must-do.